Jubilee of Sports: The popes and soccer (football)

It was Catholic youth who convinced priests and then bishops of the benefits of this new Anglo-Saxon sport. St. John Bosco (1815-1888) testified to this with tenderness: “How can we make children happy? How can we bring children together? Throw a ball into the street and the children will come running.”

This marked the beginning of a golden age in the relationship between the Church and soccer, with Catholic youth clubs taking charge of young people's leisure activities. These clubs flourished throughout Europe in the first half of the 20th century, then spread to the rest of the world. 

In Italy, the popular success of “calcio” (as the sport is called in Italian) made it the only modern “religion” capable of coexisting with the Church. Even the popes couldn’t ignore this immensely popular passion. Benedict XV (1914-1921) and Pius XI (1921-1939) encouraged the construction of soccer fields in the Diocese of Rome, appealing to the powerful American organization of the Knights of Columbus during the interwar period.

But it wasn’t until Pius XII (1939-1958) that a soccer team was officially received at the Vatican. This was Athletic Bilbao, the Basque team of the Spanish league. The team visited the Vatican in 1956 after playing and losing a final against AC Milan. Pius XII's comments showed that the era of professional soccer had not yet arrived: he praised the “sincere amateurs of an activity to which [they devote themselves] with heart and soul, putting youthful enthusiasm and genuine effort into it.” 

The game also inspired the pope to make a beautiful comparison, which shows his extensive knowledge of sports tactics:

His successor, John XXIII (1958-1963), was not a sports-loving pope and had no interest in soccer. This was in contrast to the rest of the Roman Curia. Even at that time, bishops and cardinals were already openly supporting their teams.

Paul VI (1963-1978) inherited a special attachment to soccer’s roots as a local and family/oriented activity. He declared that “those who take to the field and have faith have an extra piece of equipment.” Soccer players remembered that, sometimes to the point of superstition!

In 1965, Paul VI received the players and managers of the soccer club of his hometown, Brescia. In his speech, in his characteristic intellectual style, he emphasized the spiritual dimension of soccer:

On this occasion, the pontiff gave visitors an unusual painting depicting Christ wearing blue and white—the colors of his team! This work is still on display today at the headquarters of Brescia Calcio. 

John Paul II, elected in 1978, is the only true soccer-playing pope in history. In his youth, he played goalkeeper for a club in his hometown, MKS Krakow. Those who remember him speak of him as an excellent goalkeeper and a great leader for his teammates.

During his pontificate, he often had contact with the world of soccer. In particular, he met with delegations from national and local teams, such as Ireland during the 1990 World Cup in Italy, and the rival clubs Lazio and Roma after their respective successes in 2000 and 2001.

His love of soccer was nourished by simple pleasures. Once during a stay in Castel Gandolfo, important figures were waiting for the Polish pope as he strolled through the gardens of his summer residence. His secretaries told him that they were waiting for him, but the pontiff didn’t listen; he was watching a little boy, the son of a gardener, playing with a ball.

The secretaries insisted, but the pope shook his head firmly as if to say, “I'm sorry, I don't have time now. I have to play soccer.” And in front of the family and a photographer, he exchanged a few passes with the little boy. 

John Paul II was much loved by soccer players, who were starting to become international stars in those years. He was the first pope to truly put top athletes at the service of the Church.

Four days after his death, a highly charged competition took place between the rival teams of the Lombard capital, Inter and AC Milan. At stake: a place in the Champions League semifinals. While the two teams battled it out on the field, the focus was different in the stands: chants were shouted and banners were unfurled in tribute to the Polish pope.

One of them the banners already displayed the words “Santo subito,” often repeated in St. Peter's Square in the days that followed. It was a sign of the affection that the world of soccer had for him.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State to Benedict XVI, was a fervent supporter of the Juventus Turin soccer team. Following in the tradition of Don Bosco, the Salesian decided to launch the first “World Cup” for teams of priests and seminarians, the Clericus Cup, in 2007.

Since then, each year the tournament has brought together clergy from all over the world to compete on the green turf of a field just a stone's throw from the tiny state.

It differs from other competitions in that it uses blue cards instead of yellow and red cards. Rather than sending the offending player off the field, the blue card sends him to “purgatory” before allowing him to return to the game.

The Salesian cardinal, convinced of the positive role that soccer can play, especially for young people, has always sought to involve the Church in the sport. 

Like John Paul II, Pope Francis often found himself as a goalie in his youth in Buenos Aires. His being put in this position is probably due to him having a “pata dura,” as they say in Argentina—the equivalent of saying he had “two left feet.”

However, this never prevented him from being a true soccer fan. In a recent biography, he recounted that he remembered with nostalgia the pizza and jar of snails in spicy sauce his father would order on match days at the Viejo Gasómetro, the stadium where the San Lorenzo club played in Buenos Aires in those days.

The stadium has now been demolished, and the team is considering renaming the new stadium “Pope Francis Stadium.” However, Pope Francis himself wasn’t enthusiastic about this idea. He was nostalgic for a “romantic soccer” not yet tainted by financial and advertising interests. 

Although he hadn’t watched soccer on television since the 1990s, the pontiff remained a season ticket holder for his neighborhood club. A twist of fate? San Lorenzo won the Argentine championship in 2013, the year its most famous supporter was elected.

Francis often spoke of his childhood passion to soccer players who came to visit him at the Vatican. In October 2019, he thanked the Italian National Soccer Team for visiting the children of the Vatican’s “Bambino Gesú” Pediatric Hospital, and he shared this memory with them:

During audiences with Lionel Messi and other leading soccer players, the pope never failed to emphasize the responsibility of soccer players, especially toward younger generations. His favorite player was always René Alejandro Pontoni, who was a center forward and striker for San Lorenzo during Francis’ youth. For the pontiff, he embodied the ideal of “love for a sport that was not just a bank account.”

When Francis died, there were numerous tributes in stadiums, particularly in Serie A, where some matches were postponed.

Shortly after Pope Leo XVI’s election, it emerged that he shared his predecessors' passion for soccer – but also for tennis and baseball. Shortly afterwards, a close associate of the pontiff even revealed that the American-Peruvian pope was a supporter of AS Roma, one of the capital's two clubs... which the pontiff partially denied when he received Napoli after they won Serie A. After all, the pope is not only the bishop of Rome, but also the primate of Italy.